Machine-Type Communication (MTC) is an important revenue stream for operators and has a huge potential from the operator perspective. Lowering the cost of MTC user equipment (UEs)/devices is an important enabler for the implementation of the concept of “internet of things” (IOT). Many MTC devices are targeting low-end (low average revenue per user, low data rate) applications that can be handled adequately by GSM/GPRS. Owing to the low-cost of these devices and good coverage of GSM/GPRS, there is very little motivation for MTC UE suppliers to use modules supporting the LTE radio interface. In order to ensure that there is a clear business benefit to MTC UE vendors and operators for migrating low-end MTC devices from GSM/GPRS to LTE networks, a new type of terminal, i.e. low cost (LC) MTC UE, is introduced in Rel-11. The cost of the LC-MTC UEs is tailored for the low-end of the MTC market to be competitive with that of GSM/GPRS terminals. The low cost MTC device/UE is characterized by:                One Rx antenna;        Downlink and uplink maximum TBS size of 1000 bits;        Reduced downlink channel bandwidth of 1.4 MHz for data channel in baseband, while the control channels are still allowed to use the carrier bandwidth. Uplink channel bandwidth and bandwidth for uplink and downlink RF remain the same as that of normal LTE UE.        
In order to serve the low-cost (LC) MTC UE, the network capable of supporting LC-MTC UE needs to schedule both common channels and dedicated channels with the restriction of both TBS size and narrow bandwidth. Different from the legacy UE, if the low-cost MTC UE is not aware of network's capability, one risk is that the LC-MTC UE cannot acquire all the system information. If it camps on a cell incapable of supporting LC-MTC, it may keep trying to acquire the system information. Another risk is that a LC-MTC UE acquires system information with restricted TBS and bandwidth in a cell incapable of supporting LC-MTC, e.g. the system information is transmitted within the reduced bandwidth of 6 PRBs by coincident. Then the LC-MTC UE will perform random access procedure to access the network but cannot receive the random access response from the cell, which is scheduled beyond the LC-MTC UE's capability. As a result, the LC-MTC UE will keep trying to access the network.
In order to prevent the LC-MTC UE from accessing the network that is incapable of supporting LC-MTC, eNB needs to indicate whether it supports low-cost or not in the system information. For example, a LC-MTC UE may access a cell only if SIB1 indicates that access of low cost MTC UEs is allowed. In the current invention, the cell selection and cell reselection procedures for LC-MTC UE considering the network's capability is described.